The Importance of Mentoring and Supervision of Teachers - Literature review Example

Heading: Critical Analysis Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date Issue: What is the importance of supervision and mentoring to novice teachers, mentors, profession, administrator, and students? Introduction Usually, experienced teachers always find it hard to learn new curricula, handle classroom management and discipline, integrate students with special needs, use technology, individualize students programs, coordinate extracurricular activities, and take responsibility of various education stakeholders. Following these facts, it is apparent that these tasks are more challenging to the beginning teachers more as compared to the experienced professionals. In the first day of the new teachers work, the administration expects them to work as seasoned expert. Several school districts that find it important to nurture new teachers have initiated formal mentoring plans. This paper intends to explore the importance of mentoring and supervision of teachers in relation to the novice teachers, administrators, students, profession, and the mentors. Mentoring Initially, schools used informal mentoring programs that they later found to be ineffective. In these informal programs, new teachers do not seek help whenever in need. They also observe modern successful teaching models. In fact, expert educators do not want to interfere and intrude. Informal mentoring sessions fail to enhance teaching with time, and that they are hard to recognize and help. Thus, it is critical to identify who is gaining help, the quantity, and quality of the support (Martinez, 2004). Formal mentoring programs According to Achinstein and Athanases (2006), mentoring entails a process of nurturing through which a more experienced individual, acting as a role model, sponsors, teaches, encourages, befriends, and counsels a less experienced or skilled person in order to promote the latter’s professional growth. Mentoring activities happen in the context of a continuing, caring association between the protégé and the mentor. As in the aforementioned informal program, the protégé’s competence level always reaches that of the mentor. This is because of not exceeding the first protégé’s orientation. Here, the mentor offers classroom teaching, teaching materials, strategies, and long-range and unit plans to the protégé’s advantage. This can be described as an apprenticeship form. The mentor’s competence level does not rise in the model. Besides, there is no insightful practice in place, and no activity study conducted by either protégé or the mentor. There is also little professional development of the mentor under the buddy or informal program (Achinstein & Athanases, 2006). On the other hand, Nolan and Hoover (2010) demonstrate that formal mentoring system allows the protégé to not only attain the mentor’s competency level, but also develops past the defined baseline together with the mentor. Mentors might share materials, but also exceeds sharing and to the development of teaching materials in a joint team. This needs insightful practice, cooperative planning and action study together with a shared action plan by the protégé and the mentor. Through formal mentoring plan, both the protégé and the mentor develop into higher levels of competence and professional development. Overall, Achinstein and Athanases (2006) maintain that the purpose of mentoring is to enhance learning and teaching. This is possible through the first orientation to several problems including new work place, new organization and school community’s work culture, new assessment process and curriculum, and the profession. It also happens through enhancement of professional practices including successful teaching strategies and models, and management and leadership skills. Moreover, mentoring facilitates the growth of school as a knowledge area through permanent learning orientation, and movement past to collegial to congenial. Relationship between mentoring purpose and protégés development stages The first stage entails initial orientation, which involves the process of learning the new work place or school. This stage focuses is about the new teacher’s learning appropriate ways of planning and teaching. It also involves the teachers’ planning of curriculum, as well as management of students’ behavior. The second stage regards enhanced professional practice in which teachers learn ways of improving teaching practice, ways of enhancing the practice, and their reflections for in teaching, for teaching, and on teaching. The third stage concerns the development of a skilled learning community. This stage addresses the various ways of developing a cooperative learners’ community. Notably, new teachers should be aided to develop from the first stage through the second to the third one. These stages comprise the aim and goal of mentoring (Achinstein & Athanases, 2006). In mentoring, Martinez (2004) says that there are certain assumptions regarding the process including the fact that mentoring is a key element of an effective induction process. Secondly, lack of mentoring would make the new educators focus on the first stage and take time to move to the second and the third stages. Thirdly, both the protégé and mentor benefit from the process. The fourth assumption is that mentorship structures, activities, and programs vary broadly, from groups of mentors to protégé-mentor pairs. There is also a presupposition that effective teachers do not essentially make successful mentors. A distinct set of skills is essential in working effectively with grown students. Mentors must also have a capacity to say no or volunteer; that is make firm decisions. It is also assumed that it takes a while before one becomes an effective mentor. Lastly, mentors move from being skilled teachers to beginner mentors to professional mentors. Imperatively, Nolan and Hoover (2010) argues that despite the teacher’s expertise in pedagogy, they inevitably go through the learning cycle regarding mentoring process. To ensure protégé’s professional growth, mentors require certain mentor skills growth. Roles and responsibilities of mentors Mentors are vital in the provision of more successful school-based aid for novice teachers. Effective mentorship relies on the clearness of the responsibilities and roles of its participants. Moreover, successful plans have indicated that mentors ought to persistently teach and serve as mentors, as well as to grow and employ various strategies to help the novice teachers. Mentors should also clearly understand the natural challenges and needs of teacher students, and prepare for successful one-on-one discussion individual educators. They should also focus their energies in fields known to be challenging to the novice teachers, as well as make the combined wisdom of their skilled teachers accessible to the new teachers. The development of strategies for accepting and supporting new teachers in school setting is vital for mentors (Achinstein & Athanases, 2006). Mentors roles include encouraging and supporting the protégé‘s acculturation in the workplace; preparing and implementing a combined mentorship development plan; and maintaining a positive link between them and their protégés among others. They should also enable protégés to recognize their individual strengths and plan for improvement, and help the protégé with instructional and curriculum planning. Besides, they should observe and give feedback to protégé, as well as model and show successful teaching methods (Kutsyuruba, 2003). Roles and responsibilities of protégés One of the roles is the development of good consultation and listening skills, as well as their own instructional styles. They are also dedicated to an ethos of friendly reflective practice, as well as providing support, guidance, and help in the analysis of teaching to enhance their own success. One of the responsibilities includes preparation and implementation of a combined mentorship development plan with the mentor, as well as maintenance of a favorable connection with the mentors (Martinez, 2004). Mentoring benefits To start with, Wang and Odell (2002) suggest mentoring enables novice teachers to access experience, knowledge, and aid of mentor teachers. It also enhances professional and personal welfare due to minimized stress during transition. Mentoring also ensures enhanced job effectiveness, self-esteem, and self-confidence. In addition, mentoring helps new teachers to achieve little trial-and-error learning as well as increased professional development. It also aids successful induction into the teaching profession. On contrast, Nolan and Hoover (2010) hold that mentoring s beneficial to mentors in a number of ways. First, it increased renewal, learning, and teaching performance. It also ensures recognition as the best teacher conferred via status as mentors, and refocuses on teaching practices and growth of reflective skills. It also gives them a chance to serve the career and gives gratitude to the protégé. Mentoring also benefits the administrator in various ways including improving performance from the new and mentor teachers. It also offers helping from the expert teacher to the new teacher support and orientation. It also reduced teacher attrition and time necessary for the new teacher development, recruitment, problem solving, and recruitment (Wang & Odell, 2002). To the profession, Wang and Odell (2002) assert that mentoring enhance retention of the best teachers, retention of well-trained teachers, and development of career standards of openness to learning. On the other hand, for students, it enables teachers to focus on learners’ needs instead of their own. It also increases teaching continuity because of minimal yearly teacher turnover. It also improves teachers who are lees dominating and authoritarian, more reflective and determined for constant improvement. It also yields teachers whose self-confidence enables them to employ diverse teaching activities and strategies. Importance of Supervision According to Kutsyuruba (2003), the supervision of student teachers in teaching practice is a critical exercise in the training and developing teachers. It can be the only type of personalized instruction that student educators face in their training. In terms of the supervisors of the student teachers, supervision provides them with a chance to involve in one-on-one teaching that is highly considered teaching method. Therefore, supervision is advantageous to supervisors and the student educators. Various studies indicate that supervisors form their supervision around diverse supervision mechanisms. Some of the supervision forms include contextual supervision, clinical supervision, developmental supervision, and differentiated supervision. These models are plans of changes of the managerial transactions amid student teachers and supervisors. These transactions differ with the difference in supervisee or supervisor relationships, expectations, and expected results from every model (Kutsyuruba, 2003). Clinical supervision entails a supervisor requests issues prior to and upon a supervisory process that stimulates self analysis and reflection by a student teacher. With contextual supervision, supervisors consider supervisees’ preparedness for a certain teaching job by changing their supervisory strategy to fit the supervisees’ growth level at the job. In terms of differentiated supervision, student teachers drive the process. Here, supervisors serve as mentors, and focus on what is urgent needs (Kutsyuruba, 2003). Conceptual supervision has supervisors consider occupational variables affecting their student teachers’ performances, as they advise them on the appropriate teaching techniques. Lastly, development supervision focuses on the utilization of various supervision approaches ranging from the level of power in supervisory decision making given to the student teachers. In directive control form, supervisors get total power in decision making, while the non-directive style involves student teachers gaining power in decision making process. Other forms of developmental supervision include directive informational and collaborative supervision, which both have the supervisors and student teachers sharing equal decision making power (Nolan & Hoover, 2010). Relationship between supervision and professional growth Kutsyuruba (2003) asserts that professional growth is a critical element of the ongoing teacher training and is fundamental to the school staff’s role. This growth concerns the improvement of teacher’s teaching strategies, their capacity to adjust teaching to satisfy learners’ needs, and their skills of managing their classrooms. It also entails the establishment of a professional culture that depends on common beliefs concerning the significance of learning and teaching and that focuses on educator friendliness. Instructional supervision emphasizes on professional and partnership enhancement and it is a crucial tool in the creation of successful professional growth plan. Features of supervision as a model of professional growth Supervision for the professional development of educators is based on certain beliefs and principles emerging from literature. To create knowledge and boost their comprehension of the teaching and learning process, supervisors and teachers should participate in research groups, lasting professional agreements, and teacher cooperative activities (Sidhu & Fook, 2010). Supervision is an essential part of the whole service that schools systems offer. Therefore, it should have an identity in the organizational structure and be administratively aided to achieve its goals. Supervisors and other educational leaderships are responsible for allowing educators to make decisions about their teaching performance (Kutsyuruba, 2003). What is more, Sidhu and Fook (2010) say that trust is fundamental in the effective supervisory relationship. Expertise, shared authority, and expectations due to supervision chances are preferable to traditional top-down approaches meant to achieve top-down objectives. Supervision needs proactive employment of linguistic skills to facilitate effective communication among supervisory process participants. In addition, learning, teaching, two-way development, reflection, and team cooperation are features of successful supervision. Teachers and supervisors should engage in and dedicated to thorough training and educational plans to enhance reliability, validity, and acceptability of information gathered and the conclusions drawn in the supervisory process. It is worth noting that supervision fosters professional development. One of the strategies of ensuring this is through establishing and subsequently administrating provision and support of direction for constant and systemic staff growth process. This is aided by cooperative mechanisms of problem solving and must emphasizes on the means of connecting new knowledge, ways of thinking, and on practical application of the experience, values and knowledge (Nolan & Hoover, 2010). Secondly, Sidhu and Fook (2010) assert that teachers should engage independently and in teams in the concrete activities of observation, teaching, experimentation, assessment, and reflection. This way, there will be a better comprehension of the development and development process given their students and contexts. Thirdly, it is imperative that supervisors ought to match their suitable supervisory approaches to their student teachers’ distinct traits and their developmental needs levels. The eventual aim of the supervisor must be to allow teachers to be self-governing and stimulate autonomous decision-making on supervisory methods. Fourthly, organizational leaders ought to develop a culture valuing collegial, professional interactions among parties including sharing, planning, evaluation, and learning to develop techniques for peer assessment of performance. As a result, this will improve the spread of common learning and ideas (Kutsyuruba, 2003). Incorporating professional development and supervision The two concepts are interconnected and overlap as per the local preferences and needs. The utilization of information gathered from supervisory activities, which may be utilized in the implementation and planning of staff develop teaching practices, and as a way of aiding teachers to expand and refine skills gained in the in-service training. The development of staff is a precondition to successful supervision and may be useful in the preparation of supervisors and teachers participation in the supervisory programs by training them on skills, which are necessary in implementing and maintaining effective practices (Nolan & Hoover, 2010). Both staff development and supervision emphasize on teachers success in class and enhance their teaching practices in a cooperative setting. Additionally, administrators, supervisors and teachers may provide it, and that they boost a sense of commitment, ownership, and trust to teaching enhancement among the participants (Sidhu & Fook, 2010). More so, Kutsyuruba (2003) says that supervision is an indispensable tool in the development of staff. The lasting objective of developmental supervision is to develop teachers to the extent in which they can take total responsibility for instructional enhancement. Teacher growth must be vital purpose of supervision including the fact that teachers serving at higher levels of development seem to utilize various teaching behaviors linked to effective teaching. Moreover, those that have attained higher degrees of moral, cognitive, conceptual, and ego growth tend to promote their students’ development in the fields. Besides, those at higher levels are probable to participate in group activity to school-wide teaching enhancement. Recently, a link between professional development and supervision has grown stronger. The improvements have been possible through the provision of both informal and formal in-service activities and programs focused on teacher training. In the past years, in-services have led to professional growth in which teachers participate in decision making regarding the nature and direction of their professional growth. In-service training adopts a deficiency that requires development of specific skills. Conversely, professional growth adopts that teachers require to growth and development on the job. Therefore, supervisors are seen as catalysts of this growth (Kutsyuruba, 2003). The planning and execution of successful professional development plans must be founded on and guided by best practice and research. The role of the supervisors in the professional growth focuses on the provision of opportunities and resources including books, media, devices, and teaching materials to the teachers. Hence, supervisors support both directly and indirectly through collaboration with teachers as equals. Moreover, the supervisors require awareness of the teachers’ professional degree and offer the appropriate accountability and framework for their improvement (Nolan & Hoover, 2010). Nolan and Hoover (2010) further note that the needs of professional growth for both experienced and novice teachers and special plans must be developed to satisfy these needs. Many concerns beginning teachers include work overload, fatigue, and pressure. Beginning teachers mostly have rigorous help of clinical supervision. Supervisors must work with the student teachers in a flexibly cooperation style which assumes suggestion-based plan in place of the mentor or supervisor. What is more, Hargreaves and Fullan (2000) show that administrators may offer chances for novice teachers to be involved in group teaching with experienced experts. The professional guidance may include planning for instruction, group teaching, and feedback provision. Mentors may be experienced peers, supervisor, college professor, former teacher, or principal. It is the responsibility of the administrator to ensure mentors are well-trained, qualified, and can provide the direction necessary for the improvement of professional growth among novice teachers. Recommendations For mentorship and supervision to be effective, it is critical to clearly define the roles of each participant in the process In supervision, teachers should be allowed to decide on the appropriate supervision model and professional growth strategy they want More mentoring and supervisory programs should be initiated in order to achieve the desired benefits More supervision should be conducted to enhance professional development among novice teachers. Conclusion Without doubt, supervision and mentoring are critical in the professional development of new teachers, as well as good performance among the students, profession, mentors, and the administrator. The effectiveness of supervisory programs depends on the use of the appropriate model. To ensure constant professional growth among novice teachers, mentoring and supervision are vital. There is also a need for more supervisory and mentoring programs to attain desired advantages. Additionally, explicit definition of every participant’s responsibilities and roles is crucial in the achievement of successful supervision and mentoring programs. References Achinstein, B. & Athanases, S.Z. (2006). Mentors in the Making: Developing New Leaders for New Teachers. New York: Teachers College Press. Pp. 1-20. Hargreaves, A. and Fullan, M. (2000). Mentoring in the New Millennium. Theory into Practice, 39(1), 50-56. Kutsyuruba, B. (2003). Instructional Supervision: Perceptions of Canadian and Ukrainian Beginning High-School Teachers. Pp. 2-80. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/SSU/TC-SSU-09052003134303.pdf Martinez, K. (2004). Mentoring new teachers: Promise and problems in times of teacher shortage. Australian Journal of Education, 48(1), 95–108 http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/AJE_sample_vol48_1k.pdf Nolan, J. & Hoover, L.A. (2010). Teacher Supervision and Evaluation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Pp. 85-90. Sidhu, G.K. & Fook, C.Y. (2010). Formative Supervision of Teaching and Learning: Issues and Concerns for the School Head. European Journal of Scientific Research, 39(4), 589-605. Wang, J. & Odell, J. (2002). Mentored learning to teach according to standards-based reform: a critical review. Review of Educational Research, 72 (3), 481-546 Read More